


don't stand a ghost of a chance with you

by blackkat



Series: Nico/Dooku prompts [1]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Grumpy Old Men, Humor, M/M, terrible flirting
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-29
Updated: 2021-01-29
Packaged: 2021-03-15 00:15:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,304
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29054991
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/blackkat/pseuds/blackkat
Summary: “Youwhat?” Luke says a little too loudly, voice echoing across the Archives.
Relationships: Nico Diath & Leia Organa, Nico Diath & Luke Skywalker, Nico Diath/Dooku | Darth Tyranus
Series: Nico/Dooku prompts [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2131635
Comments: 15
Kudos: 323





	don't stand a ghost of a chance with you

**Author's Note:**

> For the prompt: Dooku/Nico, where they each have one of the Skywalker Twins as a padawan

“You _what_?” Luke says a little too loudly, voice echoing across the Archives.

Nico can see the instinctive, predatory way Jocasta snaps to attention, head coming up like a nexu scenting a wounded nerf, but before she can move to engage he clears his throat delicately, drawing her attention. Jocasta looks over, entirely unimpressed, and raises a brow at him, and Nico raises one back, flicking a pointed glance over at where Dooku is leafing through past mission reports from the planet he’s been assigned to. Half of his attention is trained on Luke, though, and from the suspicious slant to his expression, he’s still convinced that Leia is a bad influence.

Which is ridiculous, honestly. It’s _Nico_ who’s the bad influence. Leia just helps things along.

Jocasta gives him a gimlet stare from across her desk, but after a long moment she rolls her eyes and clearly surrenders to the nonsense that’s about to invade her Archives. That might as well be permission, so Nico smirks and goes back to his diagrams of the palace of the most recent Hutt crime lord to think he can encroach on Republic space and sentient rights, counting down in his head.

It only takes until a count of thirty before there's a scuffle, a yelp, a hiss, and then Leia promptly drags her twin out from a bank of computer terminals and frog-marches him straight towards Nico.

“Master!” she says, not _quite_ too loud, but only because she’s run enough missions with Jocasta working alongside them to have a _deep_ respect for Jocasta’s aim and the vase full of rubber balls she keeps at her elbow at all times. “Master, Luke wants to come with us on our mission.”

Across from Nico, Dooku freezes.

Nico does _not_ stroke his mustache as he sits back, if only because Tae says it doesn’t hide his smirk at all. Instead, he gives Luke a kind smile where the boy is hovering behind Leia, looking hopeful.

“Come with us?” he echoes, perfectly innocent. “You are always welcome on our missions, Luke, and I truly love having the company of another skilled swordsman, especially as few are your sister’s match. _And_ we could likely use the help, given our target. But I'm afraid the decision lies with your Master. I cannot take another Jedi’s padawan without permission.”

“And you aren’t going to get it, Diath,” Dooku says pointedly, turning and rising to his feet to loom over Nico's table. Nico would be more intimidated if he didn’t remember Dooku before he hit his growth spurt, and he raises a brow, deliberately leaning back in his chair. Slouching insouciantly, his old Master might have said, but if anyone has earned insouciant slouching by being an insufferable asshat, it’s Dooku, so Nico has no regrets.

“I won't?” he says, feigning surprise. The way that Jocasta presses a hand over her eyes says he’s going it badly, but Leia is the only one who would call him on it and she currently looks impossibly smug, because she knows precisely what’s happening. “Training with other Masters is an important method of growth for young Jedi, Dooku. Would you really deny your padawan a learning experience?”

On cue, Luke fixes a beseeching look on his Master, all wide blue eyes and tentative hope. Clearly Leia isn't the only one who’s realized what’s happening here.

“A learning experience, no,” Dooku says precisely, looking down his long nose at Nico. “What _you_ run, however, are not _missions_ , Diath, they are _disasters_. I will not have my padawan getting involved in such things.”

Leia scoffs, folding her arms over her chest, and levels a dark look at the back of Dooku's head. Nico doesn’t waver, simply raises a brow at him and deliberately turns his diagram of the Hutt’s palace around.

“It’s on Nar Kreeta,” he says, perfectly mild. “I do so remember how you love Nar Kreeta, old friend.”

Dooku's face does something complicated, finally settling on contained rage. “You are _not_ dragging my padawan to Nar Kreeta _alone_ , Nico, I refuse—”

Jocasta drops her head onto her desk and quietly thumps her forehead into the wood, radiating disbelieving despair.

“Oh?” Nico says, pouncing on the opening. “Then you’ll come, how delightful. All right, Luke, Leia, off you go. Get your things and meet us at the upper landing platform—”

Dooku splutters. “Diath, I am _not_ —”

It’s entirely useless. Luke and Leia bolt for the main doors, moving faster than Nico can recall seeing them do so before. They're gone in an instant, and Dooku takes one step after them, looking helpless, and then freezes like he just realized he showed a weakness.

If he thinks that’s the sort of thing Nico is bothered by, he forgets that Nico used to grind his face into the mud in the gardens and somehow _still_ appreciates it as a nice face. Snorting, Nico shoves the chair on the other side of the table out with one foot, waving Dooku into it.

“If you keep making that face, it will stick,” he says, more than a little smug. Dooku gives him a dark look, and Nico smirks in return. “Really, Dooku, if you ever let your padawan do anything interesting, you wouldn’t have this problem—”

Dooku settles primly in the seat, snatching the diagrams out from under Nico's fingers. “You’ll forgive me if I don’t take advice from someone who had to be rescued by his former padawan and a _bounty hunter_ two weeks ago, along with his padawan,” he says acidly. “If you’re letting her cavort with _Jango Fett_ —”

“I rather think it’s Boba Fett she’s more interested in cavorting with,” Nico says, and pegs Dooku between the eyes with his stylus. Jocasta isn't the only one who cultivated perfect aim during their padawan days. “And it’s bold of you to throw stones when your grandpadawan is _Anakin Skywalker_ , Dooku. I heard all about the run-in with Captain Ohnaka.”

Dooku's grimace is deep, unhappy, and pained, even as he deliberately tucks Nico's favorite stylus into his pocket. “Close your mouth, Diath,” he says, and Nico laughs in his face.

“Back to Nar Kreeta,” he says, raising a pointed brow at Dooku. “Force, but it’s been…twenty years?”

“Fifteen,” Dooku corrects automatically, and then freezes like he’s been caught out.

Nico isn't tasteless enough to keep harping on his victory when they both know that he’s won. Well. He’s not tasteless enough to do it _every_ time, but considering how often Dooku is wrong that has to count for something. “Fifteen, my mistake,” he corrects easily, and when Dooku glances up, eyes narrowed, Nico catches his gaze and holds it. Taking Anakin as a padawan, to fulfill Qui-Gon’s last request, was a good change for him. Nico will admit that without hesitation. Everything that’s come after has only helped. “Do you think that beach is still there?”

Dooku doesn’t say anything for a long moment, but his fingers tighten on the edges of the map, and he looks away.

“Yet more proof that you treat the sacred role of the Jedi as nothing but a joke,” he says derisively. “It’s no wonder your hellion of a padawan is such a bad influence.”

“I seem to recall,” Nico says, “that _we_ were hellions in our own right once. Back before you abandoned your sense of adventure on a mission and never went back for it.”

“You mean when I finally acquired a sense of _taste_?” Dooku shoots back, and Nico scoffs. He’s out of styluses, but he reaches for a thick book as Dooku starts to rise threateningly—

“Oh, for the sake of the Force and all who dwell in it,” Jocasta says, _vastly_ annoyed, and rounds on them. “Get _out_ of my Archives and flirt somewhere else, the both of you!”


End file.
